Thursday, June 7, 2012

I'm fine sod the rest of you.

So a couple of things from the herald this morning. Firstly, they've been "surveying public opinion". In true herald fashion, this isn't a meaningful survey in any way. Though that's not what's getting me about it. All of the responses that are in agreement with the governments plans to reduce teacher numbers (there aren't many) enter into some kind of logical fallacy world.

“I’m 81 and my teacher had 30 kids in each of her two classes. My education was fine.”

So? Maybe he had a spectacular teacher. Maybe his education wasn't as good as he thought it was. Either way, the "it didn't hurt me" argument is ... pathetic at best.

“I quite agree with the Government. We have 600 more teachers than we had 10 years ago. We definitely need better teachers and to pay them more. You can throw all the money you want at education but if there are not decent teachers, you are wasting money.”

We've got 600 more teachers! Oh noes! How many more students have we got? Seriously, how can someone be this oblivious? that's why we talk about a teacher to student ratio, not total numbers.

“If the quality of teaching is improved as a result, it’s the prerogative of the Government to cut their cloth to suit. I think that teacher unions need to stop being precious about performance assessment.”

Talk about answering a completely different question.

“It’s fine. I had an awesome letter from my principal, and my child will not be affected. It has been blown out of proportion.”

Seriously. Seriously? Rebcca Kennedy from Auckland gets the prize for "I'm fine, fuck the rest of you". Not someone I would want to have as part of a community. All of the pro-government answers that I've seen fall along these lines, I'm fine, didn't do me any harm or completely missing the point turning their comment into complete bollocks.